Half of Georgians favor charter school amendment, survey says

The amendment has a big lead in the poll.

ATLANTA - Half of Georgia voters surveyed a week ago support changing the state constitution to allow Georgia to grant charters to schools begun by parents over the objections of local school boards.

About one-quarter of voters are undecided and about the same number are opposed to the change, which will appear on their ballots this fall as a referendum question.

That’s the results of a poll released late Monday by Sand Mountain Communications, a Georgia-based political firm. It reached 1,331 registered voters Sept. 4 and asked them to take an automated questionnaire. The margin of error is 3 percent.

The results are the first voter sentiments made public since the legislature put the amendment on the ballot. Both sides are raising funds for a campaign.

“With eight weeks before the General Election, I’d rather be in the place of charter-school proponents than that of the opposition,” said Sand Mountain pollster and political consultant Todd Rehm. “For opponents of the charter-school amendment to win, they have to either convince every undecided voter or win a substantial majority of those voters and convert some current supporters.”

Among every age group political party and gender, supporters outnumber opponents.

Gov. Nathan Deal has come out in favor of the amendment, saying it provides parents a choice besides sending their children to a struggling school. But State Superintendent of Schools John Barge broke with Deal and his other fellow Republicans and opposed it. Barge warned that it would draw needed funds from traditional schools.